Colorful metaphor
A colorful metaphor, more commonly known as profanity, was a use of slang language or physical expression intended to emphasize derision, curses, or other emotional outbursts. Although such usages were uncommon in the 23rd and 24th centuries, they were an essential part of 20th century conversation, seen in the novels of "giants" such as Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins. When the crew of the time traveled to 1986, James T. Kirk began using "colorful metaphors" in an effort to blend in though he felt that Spock shouldn't attempt them, as he didn't "quite have the knack for it." ( ) Saru once informed Sylvia Tilly that she should not curse while on duty, leading to her use of the term "freaking amazing," as opposed to something more colorful. ( ) Spock mastered them fairly quickly, as he exclaimed "Damn you, sir!" to General Korrd to impel him to use his authority to command Klaa to stand down. Kirk had earlier shouted a series of curses on Spock for allowing Sybok to take over the Enterprise, "Dammit, Spock! Goddammit!" adding "I oughta knock you on your goddamned ass!" ( ) Human profanity Ass The word "ass" was a slang term for a "fool", someone's "butt", or a member of the horse family, especially in terms of a "jackass". The frustrated Montgomery Scott referred to Leo Walsh in 2266, as "that jackass" after he wrecked his own vessel caused the Enterprise to lose a number of lithium crystals, "in saving his skin..." Kirk sympathized with Scott, explaining that as for Walsh, "that's one jackass we're going to see skinned." ( ) In 2364, Jean-Luc Picard asked his new first officer, William T. Riker, a favor: that he help him to avoid "making an ass" of himself in front of children, as he was not a family man. ( ) Phillipa Louvois, upon seeing Jean-Luc Picard for the first time in many years in 2365, stated, "You know, I never thought I would say this, but it's good to see you again. It brings a sense of order and stability to my universe to know that you're still a pompous ass. And a damn sexy man." ( ) Bastard In 2152, when Silik desperately tried to contact his benefactor at the Helix, Jonathan Archer emerged and attacked Silik. He answered "I said you're an ugly bastard" to Silik, who had just asked his benefactor to repeat what he said before Archer arrived. ( ) In 2257, after discovering that the Gabriel Lorca she had assigned to the had been an from a parallel universe, Katrina Cornwell angrily muttered "bastard" as she destroyed a bowl of fortune cookies as an effigy for Lorca. ( ) In 2258 of the Alternate reality, James T. Kirk upon seeing Commander Spock at his hearing, asked Leonard McCoy, "Who is that pointy eared bastard?", later upon seeing Spock on the Enterprise, McCoy said to Kirk, "There's that pointy eared bastard ( ) In 2263 of the alternate reality, Montgomery Scott refered to James T. Kirk as a "handsome bastard" when introducing him to Jaylah. ( ) James T. Kirk referred to the Klingons several times as "bastards". ( ; ) Bitch In 2293, Montgomery Scott referred to the new Klingon Chancellor, Azetbur, as "That Klingon bitch killed her father." ( ) Son of a bitch In 2152, when the Vulcan ambassador Soval maneuvered to end the mission of , Commander Charles Tucker III stated of him to Doctor Phlox, "They'll probably give the son of a bitch some gaudy medal and then cart him off to wherever they send bitter old Vulcans to retire." ( ) In 2153, Charles Tucker III called Kessick a "stupid son of a bitch". Later, Captain Archer cursed, "The son of a bitch lied to us!", after discovering the destroyed Xindi homeworld Kessick sent to. ( ) Later that same year, Captain Archer described Commander Shran as a "son of a bitch" after he and his vessel, the Kumari, refused to surrender the second prototype of the Xindi weapon. ( ) Archer warned Degra, "Listen to me, you son of a bitch!", before explaining what would happen if Earth was destroyed. ( ) After being called a "son of a bitch" by Jeremy Lucas, Arik Soong told him that his mother was actually a chemist. ( ) In 2285, Doctor Leonard McCoy referred to Spock as "that green-blooded son of a bitch", while suffering from the transfusion of the Vulcan's katra into his own mind. ( ) In 2367, Picard learned that his brother Robert had described him to René as an "arrogant son of a..." ( ) Bloody Chief Vanderberg of Janus VI referred to the Mother Horta as a "the bloody thing." ( ) Harry Mudd claimed that the Denebians had "no respect for private property" after "they damaged the bloody spaceship" that he had stole. ( ) After the passed through an unidentified energy field in 2269, the ship's computer developed the personality of that of a practical joker. When the computer began altering the ship's artificial gravity, at one point causing Montgomery Scott to fall to the floor, he described the ship's computer, and thus the ship, a "bloody big scatterbrain." ( ) Following the death of Klingon chancellor Gorkon in 2293, Scott accused Azetbur of possibly being behind her father's death, adding "...Take my word. She did not shed one bloody tear." Spock, however, dismissed his theory, adding, "Hardly conclusive, Mister Scott, as Klingons have no tear ducts." Later, when Spock called down to engineering to devise a stall for the to not return to spacedock, he inquired to Scott how long repairs to the warp drive would require. Scott, who was at first not in on the operation, replied, "There's nothing wrong with the bloody thing." ( ) While the was transporting a group of Bringloidi colonists, they attempted to ignite a fire in the ship's cargo bay, unaware of the ship's automated fire system. Following the arrival of Worf and Picard to the cargo bay, Danilo Odell emerged from the cargo bay and exclaimed, "My God, Picard, the place is a bloody death trap! Lightning bolts falling from the ceiling!" Later, Danilo approached Worf and explained, that they were "brewing poteen, but we need to find a way to heat it without this bloody ship firing bloody lightning bolts at us," Worf then introduced them to the replicator. Also during this same voyager, when Riker explained to Brenna Odell that it wasn't necessary for her to clean up the cargo bay, because "the ship will clean itself," she remarked back, "Well, good for the bloody ship." ( ) After Montgomery Scott was released from the 's transporter in 2369, he initially argued with the Enterprise-D's computer while attempting to view the bridge of the original Enterprise in the holodeck, finally (through gritted teeth and frustration brought on by intoxication) specifying the ship's registry number as "NCC-1701 – no bloody A, B, C, 'or' D." A short time later, while speaking with Picard in the same simulation, Scott became frustrated with his being out of place in the 24th century before instructing the computer to "shut this bloody thing off." ( ) Miles O'Brien frequently used the word "bloody" to express his initial frustrations with the operation of Cardassians or their technology. In 2369, he was quoted as saying, "bloody Cardassians", "these bloody Cardassian internal sensors", he described the station's carbon reaction chambers as "''a bloody inefficient system." ( ) Makbar once quoted O'Brien as stating, "''the bloody Cardies can't be trusted". ( ) He even stated the euphemism, upon spotting Q aboard the station, "bloody hell". ( ) As well as on other various instances. ( ) While searching for a runabout in the a particularly region of space with numerous planetary bodies, he described the venture as looking for a "bloody needle in a haystack." ( ) When a pah-wraith had taken over Keiko O'Brien body, and then continued to manipulate Miles into acting as if nothing was wrong, he had once uttered "You bloody...", after she took particular advantage of the situation with him while in front of Doctor Julian Bashir. ( ) While on a salvage operation at Empok Nor, O'Brien complained to Nog that "I've already lost four crewmen trying to send out that bloody signal," during their attempt to escape murderous Cardassians who were left behind there. ( ) After their runabout entered a recently discovered subspace compression anomaly and did not return to their original size after emerging, O'Brien exclaimed to Bashir, "Are you telling me that I'm going to be this bloody tall for the rest of my life?" Bashir responded, correcting O'Brien's visual size representation to an even smaller size, stating "This bloody tall, actually." ( ) In the anti-time future, where Data was the head of Cambridge University, he was visited by his friends Jean-Luc Picard and Geordi La Forge. Data's maid at the time, Jessel, later told the two visitors that "''If you're really his friend, you'll get him to take that grey out of his hair. Looks like a bloody skunk."'' ( ) Bollocks On one occasion, when Molly O'Brien fell into the past through a time portal on the planet Golana, Miles O'Brien used the expletive "bollocks" when some of the equipment he used in an attempt to retrieve her malfunctioned. ( ) Damn In 2259, Captain Kirk used the colorful metaphor "''Damn it" when he found out that the warp drive on the had a coolant leak and that it would take twenty minutes to get to Qo'noS in the K'normian trading ship they had confiscated.'' ( ) In 2368, Chief Miles O'Brien described Ensign Ro Laren's suggestion to separate the saucer of the Enterprise-D and put as much distance as possible between it and the drive section as being "damn cold-blooded," as the resulting warp core breach would destroy the drive section and all on-board. ( ) God damn In 1986, Admiral James T. Kirk asked Spock, "Have you got any god damn feelings about that?" in regards to the crisis with the humpback whales. ( ) In the 2250s Harcourt Fenton Mudd exclaimed "God damnit!" when Tevrin Krit didn't buy into his con. ( ) In 2258 of the Alternate reality, Leonard McCoy exclaimed, "Great! We have no captain and no ''god damn first officer to replace him." after James T. Kirk proved that Spock was emotionally unfit for duty.'' ( ) In 2399, Raffi Musiker swore "god damnit" after Jean-Luc Picard brought her a bottle of '86 Chateau Picard wine and a message of secret Romulan activity on Earth and she realized that she was going to have to talk to him, despite her desire not to. ( ) Upon hearing his request of her, she said that she wasn't sure what to say, but that the obvious way to go would be "You have some god damn nerve." ( ) Feck In 2399, Laris referred to the Zhat Vash as "sneaky feckers." ( ) for "fuck", regarded as much milder than "fuck". Although the subtitles for "Maps and Legends" have Laris calling the Zhat Vash "sneaky fuckers," in an interview Michael Chabon confirmed that the line was originally written as "sneaky bastards," but actress Orla Brady changed it to "sneaky feckers" (with Chabon's approval). }} Fuck In an alternate 2240s, a young played the song " " as he drove his stepfather's 1965 Chevy Corvette on a joyride through the Iowa countryside, which included "fuckin'" in its lyrics. ( ) In 2256, when working with Paul Stamets and Michael Burnham to discover a way to operate the spore drive without the "Ripper", Cadet Sylvia Tilly exclaimed, "You guys, this is so fucking cool." She immediately apologized for the outburst, but Lt. Stamets assured her that "it ''is fucking cool." ( ) In 2399 Kirsten Clancy told Jean-Luc Picard "The sheer ''fuck''ing hubris. You think you can just waltz back in here and be entrusted with taking men and women into space?" after the former requested to be reinstated into Starfleet. ( ) Later in that same year, Cristóbal Rios stated that "''I hate that fucking hospitality hologram." ( ) Hell The word "hell" was often used in Terran vernacular as an epithet, as in an exclamation that Kirk used at least once, when he exclaimed, "Let's get the hell out of here." ( ) Doctor Leonard McCoy used the word in much the same way upon discovering that he and other members of a landing party from the had unwillingly beamed into a bizarre and obviously incomplete Melkotian recreation of Tombstone, Arizona, from October 26, 1881; McCoy's response was "Hell for leather, right out of history." ( ) In 2263 of the alternate reality, used the word in that way too, remarking, "''What the hell are you drinking?" upon seeing that Captain was imbibing some Saurian brandy.'' ( ) In 2293, Spock suggested that "Go to hell" might be an appropriate Human response to the order for the to be decommissioned. ( ) In 2385 after a shipyard worker at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards on Mars asked the Android F8 if he got into any trouble the night before, he replied "Hell yeah." to which she asked what he had done, after telling her he did nothing, both exchanged the phrase "Hell yeah" to each other before he started his shift. ( ) described the Black Knight charging at McCoy as galloping "hell for leather."}} Piss off To be made very angry. After Spock saved James T. Kirk from falling to his death from El Capitan, Leonard McCoy complained that "you two of you could drive a man to drink." Kirk innocently inquired, "Me? What did I do?,", to which McCoy replied that "You piss me off. Human life is far too precious to risk on crazy stunts. Maybe it didn't cross that macho mind of yours that you should have been killed when you fell off that mountain." ( ) Shit In 1986, Dr. Gillian Taylor asked Captain Kirk if he was in the military, trying to "teach whales to retrieve torpedoes or some dipshit stuff like that?" Kirk simply responded, "No, ma'am. No dipshit." In 2063, Lily Sloane used the expletive "bullshit" twice in response to Jean-Luc Picard of the when his crew traveled to her time to stop the Borg's attempt to prevent first contact. She first used it when Picard told her that he was here to help while she was firing at him and Data, she later used it when he denied that he had a desire for revenge against the Borg. ( ) In 2256, Michael Burnham muttered "Shit, that worked" after managing to attract the tardigrade away from the rest of the away team she was part of. ( ) In 2257, Sylvia Tilly exclaimed "Oh, shit! That is not a drone!" upon discovering that the "drone" in question was in fact a hydro bomb. ( ) Later that year, Vice Admiral Katrina Cornwell told Christopher Pike and Leland to "cut the manlier-than-thou bullshit" and work together on finding Spock. ( ) Later still in that year, Pike asked Cornwell "what kind of shitstorm" awaited the at Section 31 Headquarters. ( ) In 2258, James T. Kirk, banished to for attempted "mutiny" on the orders of , used the "accurate" version of this metaphor, "'bullshit'", when the old Vulcan who saved him from becoming a native beast's dinner – who not only recognized him on sight but professed to be his lifelong friend – identified himself as Spock. ( ) In 2259, , upon discovering that the crew were aware that "John Harrison" was , uttered "''Well, shit. You talked to him." Later, Kirk used "shit" when he lost track of Khan for a brief period on the .'' ( ) In 2263, Spock was injured by shrapnel embedded near his iliac region while in a Swarm ship that crashed on Altamid. Assessing the wound, told Spock that he would be fine, but Spock noted the forced optimism in his voice suggested he was trying to elicit a sense of calm. McCoy then said he would "''cut the '''horseshit'," although Spock failed to see how excrement of any kind bore relevance to their situation. Moments later, McCoy quickly removed the shrapnel and cauterized the wound, telling an agonized Spock that he heard it hurt less if it came as a surprise. Spock, in turn, replied, "''If I may adopt a parlance with which you are familiar, I can confirm your theory to be horseshit."'' ( ) In 2364, Picard uttered the curse, "Merde" when the was drained of power by the Tkon Portal 63 near Delphi Ardu IV. ( ) The following year, Picard used the same expletive when Geordi La Forge realized that he had inadvertently invested with consciousness by misstating a command to the computer. ( ) When the USS Enterprise-D was about to crash into Veridian III, Data expressed the shock and horror he felt (thanks to his newly-installed emotion chip) with a suitably colorful metaphor, saying "Oh, shit." ( ) The Species 8472 recreation of , stationed on Terrasphere 8, referred to the concepts making up the United Federation of Planets: "tolerance for all species, the Prime Directive" as "targ manure," during talks with Kathryn Janeway and the senior staff of . In response to those statements, Tuvok corrected Boothby and stated "your metaphor is colorful, but inaccurate." ( ) In 2385, as rogue synths attacked Utopia Planitia, one of the workers swore "Shit." ( ) Klingon profanity In 2366, William T. Riker commented that Alidar Jarok's knowledge of Klingon curses was impressive, after Jarok had referred to Worf as both a petaQ and a tohzah, adding that "only a ''Veruul would use such language in public.''" ( ) Later that year, Klingon Governor Vagh swore at Picard in Klingonese after Picard denied the charges of supplying weapons to terrorists. Picard returned the favor. ( ) Appendices Background information In addition to the above, the word "fuck" was also used by a native of 20th century San Francisco in the script of , though not heard in the final version of the movie. In , at one point ambassadors at the meeting to form the Coalition of Planets noted that xenophobic Humans were using "language that is not programmed into the universal translator", which Nathan Samuels brushed off as emotional outbursts during a stressful time. The nature of that language was not explicitly explained. External link * de:Farbige Metapher Category:Linguistics